Contemplating the Future
by PyroChilde
Summary: Summary: Looking out at the sea, Dawn contemplates her life, her past, and the possibilities of the future. Remembering simpler times, she is reassured by something that is going to change the life of both the Summers sisters.


Summary: Looking out at the sea, Dawn contemplates her life, her past, and the possibilities of the future. Remembering simpler times, she is reassured by something that is going to change the life of both the Summers sisters.

Disclaimer: They aren't mine, but I really wish they were: )

**Contemplating the Future**

**By: PyroChilde**

Dawn looked out over the calm blue waters, lost in thought. As the wind blew through her hair and the cold began to creep in, she pulled her jacket closer around herself. Her thoughts drifted back through time and she remembered when things were simple.

It had been a very long time since Dawn could remember being truly happy. It had been even longer since she could remember the people she loved being happy. Thinking about those earlier days, the young woman smiled. She recalled those that had been lost fondly. Memories of the times she'd visited Spike's crypt and listening to the tales of his past, tales that would out-do any horror story the movie makers could think up. She missed her friend so much now. She recalled listening to Anya's blunt comments and her constant talk of sex. She had played up the teenage annoyance, but she had secretly loved that about the ex-demon. If you wanted to hear the cold, hard, truth about a situation all you had to do was bring it up around Anya. Dawn had also learned more about sex from Anya than anyone, and what teenager didn't think about that stuff? That brought a blush to her face, as Dawn recalled some of the more vivid descriptions she's heard about Anya and Xander's sex life. Thinking about Xander had her wanting to cry. He had changed so much since Anya's death and he was more than a little bitter about all the loss he'd had to go through including the loss of his eye. Pushing those thoughts away, Dawn focused on the good times they'd had. She thought about the adolescent crush she had once had on him. His humor even in the worst of times had helped to hold them all together and keep them sane during the apocalyptic trials they'd faced. Thinking of Tara brought a bittersweet smile to her face. The gentle Wicca had been like a mother to her, to all of them really. Her calming, soothing presence had always comforted those in need of it. Her understanding and loving nature made her a person you could turn to no matter how bad you had managed to screw things up. So many of the potentials had died in that last battle, but Dawn couldn't really remember too much about any of them. She hadn't gotten close to anyone really. She figured it was partly due to the fact that she hadn't fit in too well with them, not being a potential herself, and because she hadn't wanted to know any of them. It must have been a defense mechanism she'd picked up from Buffy. After all, they'd all known that many among them would die.

As Dawn's thoughts drifted, she began to think about the present day. Everything was different now. The old scoobie gang had separated after Sunnydale was swallowed up by the hellmouth. Buffy and herself were now living in Italy. It wasn't what she'd imagined it would be, but maybe that was because her heart just wasn't in it. She longed for that feeling of _home_ that she just didn't have here. That feeling had been absent since Sunnydale fell into the ground. She missed her house. She missed her family and her friends. She missed the tight knit group that had saved the world nightly and then had fun at the Bronze. She missed the Bronze, where bands would come to play regardless of impending doom and world endage. For the past seven years, Sunnyhell had been her home and the scoobies had been her family. Dawn missed that so much now that it was all different and the group split.

Giles had gone off to England to start the long, hard task of rebuilding the decimated Council of Watchers. He was currently trying to salvage anything he could of the council's significant resources, both monetary and of course the library and all the information and contacts the council once had. He wouldn't be Giles if he wasn't flipping and polishing a hole in those glasses of his over the loss of the books. Giles was also diligently establishing schools and training centers for the newly called slayers. He had several people tracking down the new girls and telling them about their power and their calling. So far, things were going even better than expected.

Willow had been through this huge change when she did that spell. She had tapped into something more powerful and more primal than anything she could have imagined. The source of the slayer's power was amazing and was somehow both the purest thing you could imagine and blacker than the pits of hell. Since that spell, Willow was so much more powerful and in touch with the magic of the universe, as she referred to it. Knowing that she didn't have the best history dealing with such immense power, Willow had gone back to Devon to see the coven. They had accepted her with open arms and were helping her to find her center and control her power rather than letting it control her. She was having the time of her life, and she was happily seeing another of the witches from the coven. Kennedy had been dumped as soon as Willow got a look at her aura for the first time and felt the darkness in her heart.

Xander hadn't been able to take it all. He was heartbroken and bitter about Anya's death. He couldn't even look at Buffy without wanting to scream at her. He knew, they all did, that he wasn't being fair but that didn't stop him from blaming one of his best friends for how things had turned out. The world might have kept on spinning, but his world ended with Anya's death. He didn't want anything to do with the supernatural anymore. He didn't want to fight anymore. He longed for the ignorance he had once been sheltered by, so many years before, and the innocence that had been protected by it. He hated Buffy for allowing him to be hurt like this, despite knowing that there was no way she would have been able to save him from it. He blamed the Powers, he blamed the evil creatures of the world, and he blamed his best friends for all his pain. It wasn't fair and it didn't make sense, but that didn't stop how he felt. That was why he decided to leave. He was now living off somewhere in Africa doing his own thing. He didn't have any contact with any of them and they left him alone, because they all knew the pain of losing someone you loved.

That left Buffy to think about. Dawn hated the look in her sister's eyes these days. She would have given anything for even that cold, emotionless hollow look now. Anything would be better than the haunted, tortured look in her big sister's eyes. Anything would be better than the agony reflected in those hazel orbs. Spike's death had ripped out her heart and left this enormous empty place inside that she couldn't fill. Not even a ghost of a smile could manage to form of her face. Nothing had been the same since the closing of the hellmouth.

As Dawn continued to stare out at that water, she thought about whether or not her sister would ever be the same again. Clutching the folder paper in her hand tightly, she shook her head slightly. Things would get better, she was sure about that. Tilting her head back a bit, a whispered "Thank you" slipped past her lips like a prayer. She would be forever grateful to the Powers That Be for this. Spike was back, and Dawn let a single happy tear run down her cheek. She wondered if he would like Italy or if they would be moving. Nothing was going to keep her family apart again.

THE END


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